So, I know I am not the typical VS target demographic being over 40 and all- but I do buy from them occasionally, and like to give their gift cards as gifts.
California has pretty stringent laws regarding gift cards offered by retailers in the state- basically gift cards need to be treated as cash here according to CA civil code 1749.
Anyway in May of this year I bought a VS gift card on ebay and used it to buy some things on the VS website - one of which was another gift card to give as a gift, I needed a new, nicer card to give as a gift vs the ebay purchase. Nothing wrong with this, because in CA gift cards = cash, basically.
I found out later that this ebay purchased card and transaction involving another gift card on the VS site flagged my account for fraud.
Then in Dec 2011 I tried to purchase around 8 $25 gift cards on the VS site to use as gifts. To pay for these 8 $25 gift cards, I created 8 orders that were paid with $15 from my bank debit card and $10 from another VS gift card that my company gives us as perks. I had to enter 8 orders because the VS site only takes one gift card per order, and I had 8 $10 cards I needed to use as payment.
This second activity of creating 8 orders for gift cards that used other gift cards for payment caused VS to lock my account and they (initially) threatened to keep the $80 gift card $$ that I had used as payment. This was a convoluted set of events, first their systems choked on these 8 orders thinking they were duplicates, I noticed they were all on hold and called- saying they were not duplicates so please process them, next I was referred to the fraud dept, where the teenage "CS rep" accused me of fraud, informed my that my account was flagged from earlier in the year- (YOU WERE TOLD NEVER TO DO THIS AGAIN!!! <yawn>) and that my account was locked and I had forfeited the $80 gift cards I used for payment. They also concocted a strange story that I had used the same $10 gift card for payment for all 8 orders, as if that was even possible.
So, a quick looksie on the CA.gov website easily verifies that in California, if a retailer wants to do business in California, gift cards are to be treated as cash. That means VS must allow gift cards as payment for any merchandise available on their site, just like it was cash. They were not doing that with me, they were trying to imply that my usage of gift card #1 to buy gift card #2 was some sort of fraud. So, I complained to the California attorney general on the CA.gov website- it took a few minutes, I received a nice letter reply from CA, stating they would be contacting VS (probably with the same letter)- and then, magically my $80 showed up as a check in the mail the next week.
I actually don't even care about gift cards or VS for that matter. But VS has an aggressive stance against "fraud" for all kinds of perfectly legal commerce activities that their younger consumer customers may not be aware of that are illegal. They can't "lock your account" for something that is protected by state laws, so check your state the next time they pull this kind of thing.
Cal. Civil Code §1749.5(b)
(1) Any gift certificate sold after January 1, 1997, is redeemable in cash for its cash value, or subject to replacement with a new gift certificate at no cost to the purchaser or holder.
(2)
California has pretty stringent laws regarding gift cards offered by retailers in the state- basically gift cards need to be treated as cash here according to CA civil code 1749.
Anyway in May of this year I bought a VS gift card on ebay and used it to buy some things on the VS website - one of which was another gift card to give as a gift, I needed a new, nicer card to give as a gift vs the ebay purchase. Nothing wrong with this, because in CA gift cards = cash, basically.
I found out later that this ebay purchased card and transaction involving another gift card on the VS site flagged my account for fraud.
Then in Dec 2011 I tried to purchase around 8 $25 gift cards on the VS site to use as gifts. To pay for these 8 $25 gift cards, I created 8 orders that were paid with $15 from my bank debit card and $10 from another VS gift card that my company gives us as perks. I had to enter 8 orders because the VS site only takes one gift card per order, and I had 8 $10 cards I needed to use as payment.
This second activity of creating 8 orders for gift cards that used other gift cards for payment caused VS to lock my account and they (initially) threatened to keep the $80 gift card $$ that I had used as payment. This was a convoluted set of events, first their systems choked on these 8 orders thinking they were duplicates, I noticed they were all on hold and called- saying they were not duplicates so please process them, next I was referred to the fraud dept, where the teenage "CS rep" accused me of fraud, informed my that my account was flagged from earlier in the year- (YOU WERE TOLD NEVER TO DO THIS AGAIN!!! <yawn>) and that my account was locked and I had forfeited the $80 gift cards I used for payment. They also concocted a strange story that I had used the same $10 gift card for payment for all 8 orders, as if that was even possible.
So, a quick looksie on the CA.gov website easily verifies that in California, if a retailer wants to do business in California, gift cards are to be treated as cash. That means VS must allow gift cards as payment for any merchandise available on their site, just like it was cash. They were not doing that with me, they were trying to imply that my usage of gift card #1 to buy gift card #2 was some sort of fraud. So, I complained to the California attorney general on the CA.gov website- it took a few minutes, I received a nice letter reply from CA, stating they would be contacting VS (probably with the same letter)- and then, magically my $80 showed up as a check in the mail the next week.
I actually don't even care about gift cards or VS for that matter. But VS has an aggressive stance against "fraud" for all kinds of perfectly legal commerce activities that their younger consumer customers may not be aware of that are illegal. They can't "lock your account" for something that is protected by state laws, so check your state the next time they pull this kind of thing.
Cal. Civil Code §1749.5(b)
(1) Any gift certificate sold after January 1, 1997, is redeemable in cash for its cash value, or subject to replacement with a new gift certificate at no cost to the purchaser or holder.
(2)
.